Wow another year is almost over and I really had to think about this one owning neither frosted film or clearly for Art. I had an idea and went with it, not quite as translucent as the talented Mr Holtz

One of the best things in bringing my journaling pages together was that I got to use two new stamp sets one a Christmas Present from my Sister and Nieces and the other a set I had purchased for myself as a gift to myself.

Soo here is my December Art Journal Pages inspired by Tim’s tag

It started of course with my Poinsettia which I created using a Stampendous Jumbo stamp, gold embossing powder, festive berries ink and a blending tool as well as some plastic packaging and some plain vellum, sadly it photographs a lot less 3d and remember it is going in an art journal so having it to big would have been a bit much though it is 3 layers of work

I started by using some matt multi medium in a very very thin layer to add the vellum then I used a brayer to smooth it out.

Let it dry, used my blending tool with some leftover festive berries ink and coloured the vellum

I then used the spritz and flick technique to get the splotchy effect. Dried it and stamped and embossed my poinsettia, I did 3 of them the last layer being the lightest ink.

I used the clear tacky craft glue to put this together as I needed something quick drying and that would hold fast.

And when I was happy added the black gem to the centre I am really happy with how this turned out as an improvised Idea.

I then cut out my white cardstock to use for my background pages

Stained it in two diff blues then used stormy sky ink over the top, some more spritz and flick till I was happy with how cold it looked and then one of my fav techniques.

I really love creating splatters and while a fancy tool is lovely to do it with I am sure I have always just used a paintbrush and tapped it over my hand to get some great splattery effects.

You can also do this with an old toothbrush.

So I did a layer of Snow Cap stain, then Snow Cap Distress Paint and finally to give it just a bit more chill and a touch of shimmer some Pewter Distress Paint. I really love how my background turned out.

I used the word stamp from the Santa and List stamp set to stamp the bottom of my journaling pages it turned out quite subtle in some places but I liked that it was never meant to be really bold.

Added in some film strip ribbon, and some ideaology bits under my poinsettia.

Then I stamped Santa in Archival Jet Black and water coloured him in distress inks adding in some Doodlebug flock for his fluffy furry bits.

Added the Mirrored Merry Christmas from my Stash

and viola another year Done and Dusted

I am so proud of my pages for my Art Journal this year and how they turned out.

It has been a great learning curve for me and I always look forward to learning new techniques and increasing my ever growing craft wishlist.

2014 just to shock you all I am actually doing TAGS I know right that is going to be a real challenge for me as to be honest I am not a big fan of doing them but I am sure I will learn as I go!!

Have to say I kind of regretted going over the last part with the blue but live and learn

For all the Day 2 techniques I used a combination of stencils from: Kaiser, Donna Salazar Designs, crafters workshop, Cheapie shop ones, and Home Made using Plastic Packaging and various Tim Holtz Dies

My only excuse is that I have spent most of the month working on 2 pieces for my very first art competition. Which I will share with you all soon.
I am not lucky enough at present to own any of the Rubz, but did make and loose a sheet of my own rub ons of a sort (a technique I will share here for turning any stamp into a rub on type image using the plastic packaging most embellishments come in)

You can see where I used them on the first page at the side and down the bottom, unlike most rub ons they have no missing bits for the colour to absorb into.

I also used some Kaiser Bonjour rub ons in random places as per Tim’s technique.

Used a mix of distress stains for my background which I feel like I am slowly starting to get the hang of as you can see on the 2nd page.

I used Ranger’s 12×12 manilla cut to size for my Donna Downey Art Journal I was sent in a swap last year.

The Stamp I used in the Center is one I picked up at a local red cross shop for $5 I fell in love with the renaissance feel of it and whilst I do not often buy wood mounted stamps owing to the space they take up I just had to have this one.

Not having any of the enamel tags as yet I did some experimenting to figure out how best to create my own faux enamel look and believe me it was a learning curve in the end I simply used Rangers embossing dabber over a cut circle of chipboard and sprinkled over hero arts white embossing powder and then after I heated it added another coat of the embossing powder and heated it until smoothish.

I then added another bonjour rub on and an idealogy chit chat word sticker. Then inked around the edge in Archival Jet Black ink and smudged a little around for effect

Added some tissue tape with a little diamonte bling.

Decorated a fragment pendant thingy by again white embossing the back and putting a bonjour rub on on the front and adding a Diamonte chain to it

and thats it pretty simple this month other than a little inking of the edges with a blending tool and some Archival Jet Black

I did look at this for a while and wonder if I wanted to add anything else, I am sure I could probably add more but will leave it as is sometimes uncluttered is a good thing.

For about a year or so now I have been totally enchanted by Donna Salazars work with reclaimed denim from her headbands and hand made flowers and embellishments.

Recently I found a 50c clothing section in one of my local op shops and scored 3 pairs of jeans. One was so lovely with embroidered pockets when I discovered they would fit a friend I told her they were hers until they fell appart then they were mine lol. It was a bit of a wrench to part with them because there is the most adorable little embroidered pocket on the front.

Anyway I have pulled appart and cut up one of the pairs and when I got my New Big Shot this week (thanks to an amazing and generous friend) I did some cutting out of the denim and played a bit with some embossing and Inking.

What I have learned is that Denim is a great canvas for ink, it embosses like a dream and is quite a versatile medium.

Steel rule dies are the best to cut through the fabric however as long as you do not mind having to do a little cutting, the thin metal dies work pretty well.

I used a combination of Quickutz and M Press Dies for this album as well as one of the reclaimed denim pockets:

I decorated the pocket to match the Album cover with an M-Press Heart that had been embossed with a Cuttlebug Script folder.

The album is cut from the Quickutz Santa’s Workshop Die Set, I used part of the elastic stretch section of the Jeans as a sort of Handle, all the pages are embossed with an M Press Butterflies embossing folder and then inked over.

and from the back:

The Inside Pages: have spaces added for small photos with more quickutz dies, and random stickers and rub ons from my stash.(not sure of the stickers but the rub ons are from Kaiser Sweet Nothings and bon jour)

I also cut out two pieces of denim for each page though honestly it was quite a sturdy denim and would have been fine as indavidual pages. I used OK to wash it glue to stick it all together, MM Crystal brads to hold it all together

and thats it one Denim Mini Album stored in a Denim Pocket. I may end up cutting out a word from Denim and adding it to the pocket just to tie it all together a little better.

By now you are all well and truly aware I am not only a budget scrapper but a bargain hunter as well.

Nearly all my craft supplies have been gotten on Sale, or at a discounted rate.

I recycle everything I can think of.

I also look for things to play with (though have to stop myself sometimes as I have been trying to use up the OTP stuff I have, needless to say I am almost out of MDF albums and fun stuff to play with)

Anyway the OP shop (opportunity or second hand shop for non Aussies) near my Councilor is a treasure trove of interesting items.

I recently Discovered that they have a section out the back with old jeans for just 50c ( perfect for crafting with at that price and no sadness at killing erm I mean upcycling a pair of jeans)

I have also scored many a good 30-50c book, a whole container with about 60 slide covers again 50c, a bag of dominoes for 2oc

and this little Locker which once upon a time came with a Mary Kate or Ashley Olsen Doll for 50c. It still had the faux magazines and books inside it.

This is just phase one of this project I have an idea for it but it will take some $$$ to get the things I want and a little inventiveness on my part.

Now because I like to pin my posts and I am not clever enough with photo editing to put the pics all Into one I will start with what I have done to it then show you what it looked like to begin with etc. Almost backwards but not quite.

So here is what I have so far (remember this is just a smidge bigger than a barbie type doll):

and here is what the locker looked like originally

and here is is covered in Foil Tape (I got a rather large 2″ wide roll from ebay by searching foil tape worldwide it was about $4 and it is well worth the money as it goes very far.) I was tempted to leave it like this cause its kind of fun and funky all silver but I really do have an idea for where I want to take it.

and again how it looks now.

I embossed the foil tape by tearing it into strips the length of my Cuttlebug embossing folder. I embossed about 4 strips at a time as they are thin and it is much quicker this way. I also did the strips in different sections of the folder so I could mix up the looks.

I then took each strip and used alcohol inks in Lettuce, rust and another colour. Painted it with Black Ranger Paint dabber, left it to dry overnight and then lightly sanded off some of the black paint. I find the steel wool technique does not seem to work very well for me and flattens the embossing a bit to much for my liking.
The best part about the foil tape is that it is very forgiving and easy to add more where needed.